OFFICIAL PROGRAMME
The ‘ jump ’ from domestic racing to World racing is more easily attained for a French Supersport rider than it is for Superbike .
EXCITING CONTENT riders from the past , with many of them securing their wins or podium places for non-French teams . Even the most successful French riders have ridden most of their careers for teams from Belgium , the Netherlands , the UK , Italy or even India via the UK . The exceptions do exist , of course , with Christophe Guyot ’ s successful and highly respected GMT94 fielding serial race winner Jules Cluzel and other talents like Corentin Perolari recently . Christian Bourgeois also ran an official Kawasaki WorldSSP team for a time . What is not Supersport-based in also important if you think of French racing . The domestic Superbike championship has never quite taken off in the same way that British Superbike has , for instance , or the occasionally noteworthy CIV Superbike series , or the country that started it all in many ways , the USA . It has often been said that for too long the best British Superbike riders could get a good ride in WorldSBK but most would move no further into MotoGP™ . The reasons given were lack of UK budgets for non BSB racing , no UK teams inside MotoGP™ to support them . Eventually there was a lack of British riders on the MotoGP™ podiums for so long that the important people stopped even thinking of having a UK rider inside MotoGP™ , with the exception of one or two as a kind of strategic placement from the series organisers .
Has the same ‘ berth-blocking ’ been at work for French riders in the past as far as WorldSBK racing is concerned , and with WorldSSP as the ‘ glass ceiling ’ that few pass through ? Well , Lucas Mahias has entered WorldSBK this season , and as a proven WorldSSP champion he is long on riding talent and sheer will to win . His eclectic career has seen him ride most things , in most scenarios , but now at the same 32 years of age as Jules Cluzel , Mahias is undergoing his first full WorldSBK season , in the same Kawasaki Puccetti Racing team that he has won WorldSSP races with in 2019 and 2020 . So far so good , except for a crash and wrist injury at Assen . He won his WorldSSP championship with the Italian GRT Yamaha team , of course , then joined the equally Italian Kawasaki Puccetti squad . What does he make of why France has been traditionally so strong in WorldSSP racing ? Well , he has gone on record in the past as saying budgets to propel French riders into WorldSBK have been tough to find . And also how relatively accessible WorldSSP racing is for a French scene with a very strong ( and equally relatively accessible ) domestic Supersport series on the go for many years . The ‘ jump ’ from domestic racing to World racing is more easily attained for a
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